


Judging a Buford by it's Cover

by Penguin_Lord, ThinkToThought



Series: UDanville Verse [1]
Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-10 21:53:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1164971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penguin_Lord/pseuds/Penguin_Lord, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThinkToThought/pseuds/ThinkToThought
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's college application time and nearly everyone in Danville thinks Buford is not going to college. But you know what people say about making assumptions...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Judging a Buford by it's Cover

**Author's Note:**

> This series is co-authored by both ThinkToThought and Penguin_Lord. However this story is authored by Penguin_Lord only, with some helpful critics, criticisms, and brainstorming sessions with ThinkToThought.

Junior year was when the whispers started. The five of them, Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, Baljeet, and Buford, had been friends for as long as anyone could remember so it was natural that most people thought of them as a collective unit. Sure Phineas and Ferb as brothers attached at the hip were more often than not always thought of as impossible to split but wherever those two were, the other three (and Perry the Platypus) were not far behind. 

Thus it came as a shock to the system when people started asking them about college. 

“Hey Phineas, what colleges are you applying to?” One classmate asks eagerly during 1st period AP Physics. 

“Ferb, Ferb! Have you finished your application for Berkley yet?” Another inquires. 

“And you Baljeet, where would you like to go to college?” Their history teacher confronts them while they were filling out graduation paperwork in the office. 

“Isabella, darling, what scholarships are you applying for?” Mrs. Gracia-Shapiro asks her daughter.

Parents, teachers, friends, classmates, and casual observers all wanted to know what their plans were for college. Naturally people were all agog at what college Phineas and Ferb had been scouted for this week (by the time they had announced their final decision Brown, Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Carnegie-Mellon, Tulane, and NYU had come knocking. All were turned down with a firm but polite ‘no thank you’). It was assumed by most that Isabella would follow Phineas wherever he went. Baljeet most people knew was applying to all of them, his over-achieving habits being hard to break especially in a time of this much stress. 

But nobody asked Buford what college he was planning to attend. 

(“Hey Buford, are you going to get a job after you graduate?”

“Buford, where are you applying to work?”

“So army or marines?”)

Sure all of Danville knew he was not stupid; one could not hang around Phineas and Ferb without picking up a few things. And yet, somehow he kept his reputation as a bully all throughout high school, though his main - and later his only – target during elementary school and middle school had been Baljeet. By the time they reached their final years in high school Buford’s bullying had petered down to a show of causal flirting, a way to mark his territory. 

Nevertheless, people never lost that image of him as just an ‘angry wall of meat’ as Baljeet had once put it. People saw Baljeet’s mad rush of applications. People saw even Phineas and Ferb’s less hurried but no less thoughtful submissions to different school’s admissions offices. People did not see Buford apply anywhere so they assumed he wasn’t going to college. 

So people started whispering. Not the intentionally hurtful kind, just lowering their voices respectfully when discussing higher education around Buford so as to spare his feelings. Most suspected he would get a job, maybe work for Love Handel as their Chief of Security or for that purposefully non-descript building on the edge of town simply named O.W.C.A. 

Of course the five took notice when voices got too loud. 

“Didn’t you hear? Buford’s not planning on going to college.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. He’s not the brightest bulb in the box if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I mean, did you hear what his SAT scores were?”

“No, did you?”

“No, but I don’t think they were that great.”

Isabella was offended the most, ready to deck the next person that started to whisper in Buford’s presence. Phineas and Ferb were too nice to really let it show, but to the other three they could tell that even the famously unruffled Ferb developed a slight tick when teachers and student counselors alike would fastidiously ignore Buford during all the talks of college. Buford however was the only one who seemed to find the entire situation utterly hilarious. 

“They don’t know me,” he’d chuckled to his friends halfway through senior year while doing homework in the library. “What do I care what they think? I don’t know them so what they think doesn’t bother me at all. Besides, Buford show them. We all will.” 

Isabella looked slightly mollified but still a little grumpy. Phineas just smiled as brightly as a star, “Right Buford. College will be great with the five of us all together. If only the dorms would let us bring pets that are not fish with us. Maybe they’ll bend the rules for Perry?”

“Well, he is a _semi-aquatic_ mammal. That may count for something,” Ferb suggested. 

“Besides, he is a platypus. They don’t do much,” Phineas agreed. “Now come on guys, I know what we’re going to do today! Let’s re-enact the Battle of Salamis! Ferb and I already have the plans drawn up for reconstructing some Greek Triremes.” 

After that Isabella stopped glaring so fiercely at people who implied Buford would not be joining them at the college of their choice and by the time May rolled around everyone was so busy with graduation from High school that all the discussions of college were momentarily forgotten. When Buford walked out to receive his diploma with a cumulative GPA of 3.85 no one was the wiser. Mrs. Flynn and Mr. Fletcher congratulated him like he was one of their own while Candace smothered Phineas in a tight hug and Jeremy shook Ferb’s hand. Candace switched victims to her other brother and Phineas and Jeremy walked over to join Phineas’ parents, Buford, Baljeet, Isabella, and Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro where they had all congregated. 

“So I hear you’re going to University of Danville Phineas?” Jeremy asked.

“Oh yeah, they have a really good engineering department that Ferb and I have already been accepted in,” Phineas confirmed happily. 

“What about you Isabella?”

“Same. I’ll be entering into their business management program,” Isabella grinned. “There has to someone trained to manage Phineas and Ferb’s eventually very successful business.”

The parents laughed indulgently (either Linda Flynn had the largest case of willful blindness Jeremy had ever seen or she… nah, it had to be willful blindness) but Jeremy knew Isabella was being completely serious. And Jeremy did not blame her. One day his fiancé’s (he’d proposed last week on their eighth year split cheese-dog with milk anniversary. He and Candace were going to announce their engagement tonight at the party) brothers were going to rule the world if no one was careful. Perhaps it might even be an improvement. 

“Baljeet?”

“I too will be attending the University of Danville. Their computer science department is most formidable.” 

“What about you Buford? What’s your planned major?” Jeremy knew the five friends would not let something little like college split them apart and so was confident that Buford would also be attending the University of Danville. 

“Music,” Buford admitted with a scary grin. “The music department at UDanville is pitiful. Their Symphonic Ensemble only got 3rd at the National College Band Festival last year. I’m gonna have to whip them into shape.” He cracked his knuckles to accentuate his point, smiling his threatening single toothed smile. 

“Really, what instrument?” Jeremy asked.

“Well they offered me a harp scholarship, a piccolo scholarship, and a cromorne scholarship. But their current bassoon player sucks too so I might have beat him into submission as well.”

“I didn’t know the University still offered cromorne scholarships,” Lawrence Fletched commented. 

“This is the first cromorne scholarship the University of Danville has given out in one hundred and seven years,” Baljeet announced proudly. 

“Um, what is a cromorne?” Buford’s talent for obscure musical instruments still managed to surprise Jeremy even after he’d seen the younger teen play anything from a violin to a subcontrabass tuba (though where Buford’d kept that tuba Jeremy did not want to know). 

“It’s a Baroque period double-reeded wind instrument of French origin with a curved shape and particular sound that’s hard to describe,” Buford explained bluntly. 

“Well, congratulations Buford,” Jeremy said. 

Whispers started up once again, but this time everyone was talking about Buford instead of ignoring him. Substantial interest went up in the University of Danville’s Music Department. Isabella smirked at everyone who whispered now. Buford still didn’t care but he couldn’t help the small spark of pleasure whenever someone asked him how much of a scholarship he got or what bands he was planning on joining when he started college. 

And four years later, after the University of Danville had won four consecutive National Symphonic Championships, after Philharmonic Orchestras and National Symphonies and Concert Bands from all over the world were knocking at his door, people finally stopped judging Buford by his cover.

**Author's Note:**

> The cromorne is a legitimate instrument. Here is a link to a youtube video example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SItUlyB5AT8


End file.
